AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Like she was an idiot. Like she couldn’t hear every word.
“Didn’t you tell them?” her mother hissed. Layne could smell her Chanel perfume from here. “I can’t believe they’re not even examining her.”
“Tell them what, Charlotte?” Her father’s voice was tired.
“She’s fine.”
“She’s not fine, David.” Her mother spat his name like it tasted bad. “She’s already damaged enough, and now you’re acting like nothing ”
“I’m not acting like anything. Why don’t you get a handle on the histrionics. I’m sure you have a pill or something you can take.”
Layne wanted to lie down on this stretcher and put the pillow over her face.
She’s already damaged enough.
Thanks, Mom.
The paramedics had said they were taking her to the ER as a precaution, but a doctor had listened to her lungs and shined a light in her eyes and declared her perfectly well. He’d told her that normally people had breathing difficulties from smoke inhalation, coughing, shortness of breath. She didn’t have any of those things. Now she was just waiting for a piece of paper so she could get out of here.
No one knew about Gabriel. No one asked.
She didn’t start out keeping him a secret she just didn’t know what to say, or when to say it. People kept speaking over her head, never asking her anything more than whether she knew what day it was or how to contact her parents.
She’d found his lighter in the grass beside her, probably dropped when he’d grabbed his things and run. She’d shoved it into her pocket. Even now, she could slide her hand between the fabric panels and run her thumb along the slick metal casing.
I don’t want you to hate me.
She thought about the recent arson attacks in the area. Was he telling her he was responsible?
Had he started the fire in the barn?
They’d lain together in the grass for at least fifteen minutes, maybe more. If he’d put this lighter to a bale of hay or something, how long would it have taken the place to go up like that?
Surely faster than fifteen minutes, right?
And when would he have done it? Though she hadn’t had her eyes on him every second they’d been together that morning, she couldn’t see how he would have been able to climb into the hayloft and start a fire without her even noticing.
Beyond that, why would he have done it?
She kept running his words through her brain, as if they were a math problem, and all she had to do was find the right equation to solve for X.
The night I drove you home was the first night The first night that what?
Her mother yanked back the curtain, making the hangers rattle in the steel track. Though she was wearing a white tennis skirt and a pink trimmed sweater, her eyes were perfectly lined, her mascara unsmudged. Even her lipstick looked freshly applied.
Layne wondered how much time she’d spent getting ready to come see her daughter in the hospital.
She wondered if she’d actually been playing tennis.
“Baby? You okay?”
“I’m great,” said Layne flatly. Baby. As if her mother gave a damn. She’d spent more time on the other side of the curtain than she had in here.
“I’m going to flag down the doctor,” her mother said, her lips pursed. “Don’t they know what I do for this hospital? I’m going to give these people a piece of my ”
“No,” said Layne evenly. “There are sick people here. I can wait.”
Her mom opened her mouth to protest, but then her cell phone started ringing, and she stuck a manicured hand into a designer bag to fetch it.
